Browsing the headlines from Digg this afternoon, I noticed that ICANN is finally planning to stop domain tasting and front-running.

Here’s something ironic. From the article:

Under current ICANN rules, anyone who registers a new domain name has a five-day grace period to back out and receive a total refund. The policy is in place to prevent hassles if people mistype domain names during signup or simply have buyer’s remorse at signing up for ilovespaminacan.com. But because a five-day registration is free, some users “taste” millions of domain names in order to see how well they perform as marketing vehicles. The sites that don’t perform are then deleted and the cash refunded.

» Continue reading “How Network Solutions Forced me to Get Spam in a Can”

Last night I updated this blog’s design with a new theme. The old theme served us well, but I decided it was about time to get a unique custom-coded one. I coded it over the weekend and put it up today. I’ll be making small changes as I go along, so bear with me - and if you spot any glitches, please let me know.

The changeover came just in time - 5 hours before I switched and upgraded, my 2.2 version of WP was hacked. I found a nasty little iframe embedded in the header (Reminder: upgrade your WP installation now. Yes, you.) » Continue reading “New Blog Design for 2008″

Recently I’ve had a few people ask me about affiliate marketing and some guidance about where to get started.

We got into affiliate marketing about a year and a half ago and it’s been a real roller coaster ride. It’s not as easy as a lot of people make it out to be (they’re usually the ones trying to sell you an e-book), but if you are willing to put in the time (and a little bit of money) and are creative enough, it can be an awesome way to make a living.

The problem though, is that there are very few “clean” sources of information about it. Most people pushing out articles and books about affiliate marketing are actually trying to sell you something. » Continue reading “Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing”

I remember joining iStockPhoto.com in 2002. At the time it was a wonderful place to download stock photos cheaply. You used to be able to get any resolution for 50 cents per download. After Getty bought the site a few years ago, the prices have been steadily rising, and in 2008 the pricing will be getting even more expensive.

» Continue reading “IStockPhoto Keeps Raising Prices on Stock Photos”

Late last week Google announced Google Knol - a shot across the bow for every single publisher out there. For years Google has been claiming that they are in the game only to “organize the world’s information”, yet Knol is a play to actually create Google’s own authoritative content. This sounds a lot like Google is throwing Wikipedia, Mahalo, and its own index into one giant pot (and labeling it with an assenine moniker).

» Continue reading “Google Knol - Google Finally Gets into Content”